How can you be 50 mins late for your clinic?

[shade78]

I took my dd to be weighed at the health visitor clinic today and was informed by the assistant that she was running late. Fine, I thought and settled down with the other 5 mums in the waiting room. My daughter has just turned 7 months and started solids, so life is a bit confusing re hunger and nap times, but she was in a fine mood at arrival. The health visitor didn't arrive until 50 mins after the start time! I am annoyed largely because this is not the first time this has happened, 2 previous appointments ran 45 mins + late.
I know really I know that times are tough and they are stretched, but I really feel this is part of a wider attitude of 'Mums with babies have nothing better to do.' If my doctors' practice were this late, there would be a room of very loud complainers that would be more listened to I'm sure...
I did phone the lead HV and complain and she said this HV had just got back from maternity and didn't know the clinic times. God could someone have told her? 6 mums waiting for nearly an hour for her royal highness HV.... grrr.....

[mercibucket]

It's got nothing to do with paying and a lot to do with the nature of the job. My obs/gyne ws private and routinely late - was she supposed to do the em c sections by distance over the phone? then when I had the em c section, I was quite glad she didn't send anyone else to do it.
Op, as you actually know what the problem is, yabu. She wasn't getting her nails done

[cory]

I can just see Chub in a reincarnation as a heart surgeon packing up her tools and going "that's it, time's up, no time to sew him up, next please!"

[SamSmalaidh]

50 minutes seems like a long time to wait just to get a 7 month old weighed? Couldn't you have weighed her yourself at home?

The HV probably something more pressing on that morning. I'm suprised they don't have a nursery nurse or assistant to do weighing.

[McChristmasPants2012]

Working in the nhs for the last 9 years has opened my eyes.

A patient was having cardiac arrest, all qualified hands on are that patient, yet some other patients have complaint because there Meds are late ( even after explaining to them there is an emergency)

[MerryChristMoose]

That's nothing OP. I've had a 4 hour wait to see my OB. A close friend had to wait ALL DAY. She was then asked to rearrange her appt. and leave, but sat on the floor in his office reception and refused to leave until he saw her!

[FoxSake]

YABU and asan aside it's pretty easy for you to weigh your baby yourself at home for future reference, save waiting just get on the scales without and the with and subtract. I never understand why there is a massive que of mums waiting to have babies weighed, it really is as if there is lots of women with nothing to do

[PickledFanjoCat]

I had to wait nearly two hours at baby clinic once it was freakishly busy and she was apologetic..

Stuff happens. Other times I've breezed right in.

[hazeyjane]

There is often a long wait for gps and at the hv clinic in our surgery. The gps are very good, and most don't mind waiting because they know it is because they take time with patient and don't try and rush them out of the door.

The hvs deal with so many varying queries and unless it is a home visit, then there are no set appointments, if I have to go to clinic it always takes ages, which means everyone has to wait even longer, so I ask for a hime visit.

I'm sure she didn't mean to be late.

[cory]

Ah ChristmasPants, how different from ChubWorld where no cardiac arrest will ever last longer than the allotted 10 minutes!

[Chubfuddler]

Dear dear. Some of you seem to be getting awfully shirty about actually making the same point I'm making - I don't keep people waiting for 50 minutes because I don't attempt to do more work than can actually be done. People expect certain levels of service and get them. I can't keep a client waiting 50 minutes because they'll walk out and not come back. The op doesn't have that choice with a HV.

I'll leave aside the carping that obviously I never do anything life changing or significant, which is of course crap.

[scampidoodle]

I don't think you're being particularly unreasonable if no reason was given for the HV's lateness - it may have been caused by an emergency concerning another child or she might have missed her alarm.... I think your final comments are a bit unnecessary though. At least round here, there are administrators who work with the HV teams and do some of the back-office stuff, so if someone was going to be almost an hour late for a clinic I'd hope one of them would be able to get a message to the venue so those waiting could decide whether to bother staying or give up and go home. Obviously, if it was unmanned community centre or somewhere similar that might not have been possible, but if the place was open so you were able to get in then there must have been someone around...

[XBenedict]

"I don't keep people waiting for 50 minutes because I don't attempt to do more work than can actually be done."

How lovely!

[Skiffen]

Yabu for all the reasons stayed above. Also, you didn't have an appt, you went when the clinic wss meant to be on. Our local clinic was always super busy and a wait of that long wasn't unusual due to numbers regardless of punctuality.

Most children's centres/surgeries have self weigh areas now, so you could find one of those if weighing was all you wanted to do. If it's a specific issue you could ring and request a visit or ring back. You will still have to accept that child protection, pnd, domestic abuse and serious health concerns will lead to vague time keeping.

[bondigidum]

What was so desperate and important that you had to wait 50 mins anyway? I know I would not be waiting around for almost an hour just to get DCs weighed..

[ceeveebee]

I used to take my twins to be weighed weekly until 8 weeks, then monthly and now every other month. Never seen a health visitor anywhere near the clinic, always community nursery nurses. Took them today for 12 month checks and waited over an hour which us pretty normal for our local clinic. Just take food, toys etc to keep baby amused, and if wait gets too much just go the next week instead.

[NeverKnowinglyUnderstood]

YA SO BU

[whatatwat]

yabu at the highness bit.
but yanbu to be annoyed.
whoever booked you in, told you where to sit, should have told you she was running late.
all of you saying she should suck it up, as the hv could have been in an emergency, couldnt she have said ''sorry for the wait it was an emergency''.
what if one of those mums were suffering pnd and had built herself up to go see someone, being made to wait with no explanation could have made her walk away, and not get help.

[cbeebiesatemybrain]

It is annoying to be kept waiting but I'm sure it was because someone else was in more urgent need of her time rather than her just not being bothered.

My mw was always running late when I went for antenatal appointments, she was so lovely and always took her time explaining things and answering questions. I never minded as I knew it could have been me taking a bit longer another time and I would rather see someone like that than someone in a rush to get the next person in.

[Chubfuddler]

The health visitor wasn't dealing with a cardiac arrest, or an urgent case conference, or any other dr Kildare style emergency though. She'd just got the clinic time wrong. Which is kind of crap. She could at least have apologised.

[McChristmasPants2012]

Chub what is your business

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Well done Chub How nice to have the luxury, frankly.

What are you suggesting HCPs do? How would you feel about not being able to see a GP for a month because they were being careful not to 'try to do more work than could be done'?

[Vivalebeaver]

Chubfuddler, fair enough but you're coming across like you think it's a he's fault for taking on more work then they can do. They don't have that level of control to decide how many visits they can do.

The authority/pct will only employ x number of health visitors, if there are x number plus 10 visits that day that all need doing, added to the unpredictable nature of the visits what can the individual health visitor do about it?

The pct would rather the public sit around waiting for staff than having staff sitting about waiting for patients. Far more economical. That's the difference between public and private sector. There aren't the big profits which enable down time/buffer time to be factored into the day.

[Chubfuddler]

I frequently can't get an appointment with a GP for at least a fortnight and I'm still kept waiting for a good half an hour, even if its the first appointment of the day.

There are lots of marvellous things about the NHS but managing expectations and general client care isn't one of them. I just get a but sick of the attitude that we should all be so grateful all the time for the NHS. I am grateful to individuals working within it, but it's a system we have little choice about using, it costs a lot of money and it should be a darned sight better than it is frankly.

[Chubfuddler]

But that's kind of what I'm saying viva, and it's crap. And some patients are to blame - they see it as "free" so they think it doesn't matter if they DNA without cancelling, or are late, or haven't followed the prep procedure properly for their consultation etc etc. masses of clinical time wasted.

[Sirzy]

I think your last post is very true Chub. DS has spent a lot of time in hospitals and clincs and the way some people act is madness. The things which turn up at a and e which should be treated at home, the people who complain because the nurse can't drop everything to make a bottle of milk up etc etc.

Last time DS was in a peads clinc they had a DNA rate for the previous month on the board and it was over 20% - its no wonder they over book clinics if they are expecting 1 in 5 not to turn up.